I spend a considerable amount of time thumbing through scoresheets looking for the story-worthy whitetails, which wouldn’t be possible without our Buckmasters scorers throughout the country promoting BTR’s scoring system and volunteering their time to measure antlers.
A 197” Virginia giant from 1971 turned up at the inaugural Star City Whitetails Banquet in Floyd County two weekends ago and broke a Buckmasters state and county record, which makes you wonder what other potential records are out there collecting dust from decades past that may never see the light of day again, let alone be scored and recorded.
The late Herman Snead harvested this 17-pointer with his .30-6 while running dogs in Nelson County. Back then, the state’s deer population was sparse and getting your buck’s rack measured was about as uncommon as deer drives are today.
His 17-year-old grandson, Michael Snead, brought his grandfather’s mount to the Buckmasters-affiliated event in July out of curiosity. He insists a couple of atta boys around the tailgate were more than enough recognition back then, and that his grandfather hardly ever mentioned the hunt when he was alive.
“I’ve been looking at this mount my whole life. It’s the biggest buck I’ve ever seen. My poppa killed it before my dad and uncle were born but never had it scored. He was in his 20s. I heard about a scoring event happening so brought it there to be scored.”
Herman’s Nelson County record from 52 years ago is now Virginia’s largest whitetail in BTR’s semi-irregular category for centerfire rifle and the fourth largest semi-irregular (any weapon) harvested in the state.
Buckmasters scorer Anders Blixt scored this vintage 9x8, which measured 197 2/8 inches for Buckmasters Trophy Records.
— Read Recent Blog! Carl Lucky's Livingston-County 10x7 scored 190 2/8 inches for Buckmasters Trophy Records.